


Not Your Average Delivery Boy

by totallycheesey



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sexual Tension, Teasing, joelay - Freeform, pizza boy AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 07:23:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2339963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totallycheesey/pseuds/totallycheesey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joel didn't expect the delivery boy to be so hot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Your Average Delivery Boy

                Fast food delivery is part of the essential college lifestyle, and Joel was no exception. He couldn’t cook anything apart from microwaveable foods and the occasional scramble egg, anyways; plus, it was cheaper and more convenient on the go. However, it was when he started ordering pizza from the pizza place near campus that things got interesting.

                He had heard from his roommate Burnie that the delivering time only took ten-to-twenty minutes, though the pizza wasn’t exactly high-quality. It didn’t matter to him at the moment; he didn’t have time to go out himself because he had to study the wonders of stock marketing for his next class that was due to start in roughly an hour.

                When he dialed the number, the pleasant voice of a man answered, “Hello, this is Pizza Plaza, how can I help you?” Joel was caught off-guard by the smooth, calm nature of the man’s tone, but was quick to respond with his order (a medium pepperoni pizza) that cost a total of seven bucks, delivery and all. He was amazed by the cheapness and immediately decided that quality mattered even less than before when he could eat well for so little money. He hung up after the man on the other end politely told him that he would “be there in a few minutes.” The man seemed so casual and friendly to be a hardened worker of customer service.

                It was about fifteen minutes or so later that there was a sharp rapping on the door to his dorm. Normally, he would yell at Burnie to open the door, but Burnie was already out for classes or hanging out with his girlfriend, so Joel huffed and left his bed stacked with books and notes to grab his wallet and headed to the front of the dorm.

                When he opened the door, he was greeted by the sight of a man around his low twenties that was a little shorter than Joel by a few inches, appeared to be of Hispanic descent, and wore a grin that could light up anyone’s world. There was faint stubble peppering his chin and forming a shadow of a mustache that was the same dark shade as the short hair on his head, which seemed to curve slightly to the right. He was equipped with a wrinkled red Pizza Plaza shirt, some plain jeans, and an upside-down nametag that read “Ray.” He wore a pair of thin wire glasses that enhanced his eyes and outlined his appearance that screamed “I just need the money.” Needless to say, Joel found the man pretty damn cute.

                Blinking awkwardly, Joel cleared his throat and murmured, “Hello,” wallet clutched tightly in his hand.

                “That’ll be seven bucks for the medium pepperoni, correct?” Ray asked without checking what was in his hands. Joel suspected that he was new to the job to have such a positive attitude, and quickly realized that his voice matched that of the man on the phone.

                “Uh… Yes. Hold on a second.” Joel held up a finger as he dug through his wallet to find a ten and a five. The guy at the door had perked his interest, so he was definitely going to be generous in his tip. He tossed his wallet on the table beside him and handed Ray the money (including a rather large tip) before taking the pizza into his own arms.

                “Thank you, sir. Have a great day!” Ray waved off Joel, turning to leave.

                Wanting to make certain that he knew Joel was polite, Joel casually replied, “You too, Ray.” He realized his mistake when the delivery boy paused and gave Joel a questioning look. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, now he thinks I’m a stalker,_ Joel thought miserably.

                However, he quickly found the logical answer and elaborated, “Your nametag. It’s upside down, so I noticed your name.”

                Ray frowned down at his chest and noted the flaw in his appearance. “Huh,” was all he said before walking back to wherever he had come from in the first place.

                As soon as Ray rounded the corner, Joel slammed the door shut and leaned back against its cool surface. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” he chanted, hands running nervously through his messy black hair in nervous habit. In less than five minutes, Joel had gotten a crush, spoken to the crush, and managed to creep out his crush. Dammit. Why were his hands so fucking sweaty? He wiped off the moisture on his jeans.

                He was already infatuated with Ray, and he didn’t even know his last name.

                When Burnie arrived back to their dorm after all day classes were over, he found Joel face-down on the couch, groaning in frustration. After poking at Joel for a few moments, he managed to salvage enough information to understand the situation to a certain degree.

                “Well, if you ask me-” (“I didn’t,” Joel cut in.) “-I think you should answer the door shirtless.” Burnie looked entirely too proud of his deduction.

                Joel, however, wasn’t as approving. “First of all, no, I _didn’t_ fall in love with the pizza guy. Second, even if I, ahem, felt something for him, why would that help things? I just completely made a fool out of myself. He must have mental scarring from this delivery. How is being shirtless going to help anything? Won’t it just make me seem creepier?” Joel was flushing red as he spoke, even the thought of his encounter with Ray sending tremors down his body.

                Burnie snickered knowingly and said, “Dude, you’ve got it _bad_ ,” before retiring to his room to make a call to some unknown entity.

                Making one last noise of annoyance into the couch, Joel decided that Burnie’s idea was the best he had at the moment. He mumbled irritably as he headed back to his own room to continue his studying from before the pizza guy rocked his world.

 

 

                Joel didn’t want to come off as too obvious, so he waited a good three days before making another call to the pizza place. This time, he wasn’t on a time limit; he had already finished all his classes for the day and was just lying around for the most part. Burnie was out with his girlfriend, so he didn’t have to worry about some awkward confrontation between Burnie and Ray. Knowing that he had the time to be mentally prepared, Joel thought through an entire mental conversation with Ray during the spare seconds he had during the dial tone:

                _“Hello, this is Pizza Plaza, would you like to order delivery or take-out?” the smooth voice of Ray inquired lightly. It was easy to imagine that Ray was sitting up on the counter, fiddling with the hem of his shirt in anticipation for Joel’s words._

_Not about to be flustered even by the calm attitude of Ray, Joel answered, “Delivery, please. I need a medium meat lover’s with extra, extra meat.” Joel winked in character, feeling Ray’s blush even over the phone line._

_“Of course, sir. So… What kind of meat do you prefer?” Ray purred, suddenly taking a much more arousing tone. “Long, hard, thick… I can do whatever you-”_

Someone picked up. “It’s Pizza Plaza, what d’you want?” a man who was not Ray asked with an undercurrent of irritation hiding beneath his semi-professional question. His voice was rough and gravelly, as though he yelled too much and had forgotten how to whisper.

                Joel hadn’t been prepared for someone other than Ray to pick up. Actually, the thought had never even crossed his mind. However, he couldn’t just back out now… He had already gone through the trouble of calling the pizza place, and, to his regret, he was actually a bit hungry. Their pizza wasn’t bad for its price. “Um, uh, just a second,” he panicked, instantly regretting what he had said.

                “You didn’t seriously just call and not know your order, did you?” the voice sassed. Joel could tell that the man was just barely restraining himself enough to avoid cussing. “How about you call when you get this figured out?”

                Blinking in shock at the rude attitude, Joel swallowed and whispered, “Okay.” He hung up and put his cellphone back on the counter. Obviously, that man wasn’t Ray. Hell, that guy wasn’t even in the same ballpark. Joel walked back to the couch and sat down to brew in his thoughts.

                He was going to have to do some research…

                Once during each of the next few days, Joel called at different time intervals. He heard a distinguished British voice on Monday at seven in the afternoon, the same rude guy at two in the afternoon on Tuesday, Ray on Wednesday around five pm, a deep voice at ten at night on Thursday (obviously, he had a beer before calling so late), another deep voice that was only slightly edgier than the first on Friday at ten in the morning, and, once, he even heard what he believed to be the manager screaming in the background after calling on Sunday (which was answered by the British man). All these times, he hung up mid-call. He figured that if they eventually tracked him down for it, he could feign bad phone signal, so he wasn’t all that worried.

                After all, he had just figured out that Ray at least worked on Wednesdays, around five o-clock. From this, he could assume that Ray worked on weekdays around similar time periods. He tested this theory once, and, after proving himself correct, hung up. Now, he could plan accordingly.

                During all these experimental periods of time, Burnie would walk up to Joel at random and ask loudly about his pizza boy lover while Joel would try his hardest to cover the mouthpiece of his phone. Burnie even once yelled about Joel being a stalker, which resulted in Joel’s retaliation of slapping the living shit out of Burnie once he got off the phone. Burnie just laughed and stumbled off to do whatever he did.

                After much debate with himself and several important study sessions, Joel decided to go through with Burnie’s not-so-serious suggestion of answering the door half-naked. How bad could things go?

                He called and, as predicted, Ray picked up. He went through the cycle that had become routine to him after his experiments with the Pizza Plaza employees by placing his order and willingly partaking in the company-created banter. After hanging up, he immediately realized that he was in no way, shape, or form as excited about this as he believed he would be. In fact… It was kind of nerve-wracking.

                This was one of the shorter delivery times, a rapping on the door sounding a mere ten minutes after placing the order. Joel rushed to the door, peeked out the peephole to make sure it was Ray, and quickly threw off his shirt. He ran a hand through his crazy hair, muttered to himself about being crazy, and threw open the door.

                “Hello, sir!” Ray greeted cheerfully before actually noting that Joel was shirtless in front of him. Joel was pleased to find that Ray’s ears reddened in record time, though he was almost too preoccupied with his own anxiety to notice.

                “Uh, hi… Ray,” Joel answered. Ray didn’t have his nametag upside down this time.

                To his surprise, Ray let out a noise like a strangled groan. “Here’s your pizza… Medium pepperoni?” The words hardly made it out of Ray’s mouth without becoming incoherent. Apparently, Ray was as flabbergasted, if not more, than Joel was.

                This actually encouraged Joel.

                Joel took the pizza and passed Ray the seven dollars before adding ten. He willed himself to look Ray through the glasses and concentrate on his dark eyes as he recited, “A ten dollar tip for a ten-point deliverer.” God, he was so stupid. What the hell was he high on when he came up with this garbage?

                Again throwing Joel’s expectations out the window, Ray murmured, “I could say the same about you…” as he stared at Joel’s feet. Then, running his eyes over Joel’s body on his way up to Joel’s eyes, Ray added, “I’m not accepting such a big tip, though the gesture’s sweet.” Ray’s cheeks were burning red as he shoved the bill back at Joel.

                A shiver travelled through Joel’s body. He smiled at Ray and took it a step further. “Well, if you won’t take my money, let me take you out for a movie sometime. I’m free whenever you are.” He didn’t know where the words were coming from; all he knew was that they weren’t as forced and terrible as the ones before, and that was enough for him to work with.

                Ray bit his lip in contemplation before considering. However, his expression quickly turned to one of apology. “I’m sorry, I really would like to… It’s just that I, uh, y’know, have stuff to do and…” he trailed up. He honestly looked sorry.

                It hit Joel in the stomach like he had been punched. Whatever shazam he had possessed before had just evaporated. “Um, it’s alright. I understand.”

                They stood awkwardly in the doorway before Ray mumbled, “Bye.”

                Joel waved him off and shut the door. After a moment of silence, there was movement behind the door. He heard Ray’s footsteps lead away, down the hall, and eventually, they disappeared altogether.

                He leaned his back against the closed door and slid down to the ground, curling his knees up to his chest and putting his head down. He could feel his bare chest pressing against his jeans, and had to fight back an irritated groan. Goddammit… So close, yet so far.

                Again, Burnie found him a few hours later on the couch, though Joel had put on a shirt by this point.

                “So… I’m guessing the shirt didn’t work out?” Burnie asked, sitting on the edge of the couch beside Joel.

                Joel just sighed into his palms.

                “It sucks, I know, but you gotta keep trying. You already went through the trouble of calling Pizza Palace every day for, like, a month.” He patted Joel’s back soothingly. “I’m not gonna let you let that research go to waste.”

                After a moment of silence only marked by the low babble of the television, Joel mumbled, “I don’t think he even knows my name…”

                “Well, now you know where to start,” Burnie replied with a tone of finality. He began settling back into the couch, and the two quietly watched the documentary on filmmaking. About halfway through, Joel left for his room. It wasn’t that the movie wasn’t interesting; it was the fact that Joel now had some thinking to do.

 

                Roughly a week later, Joel was waiting for Ray to show up impatiently. He (thankfully) had his shirt on this time, and although his appearance was nothing out of the usual (baggy tees and jeans to match), there was something different about him. He had a new determination, and inspiration bestowed upon him by Burnie.

                _Well, now you know where to start._

                Blatantly asking Ray out? Yes, he supposed that could be considered a start.

                When the familiar knock on the door met his ears, he slowly stood from his book-littered bed. He would be okay. He knew what he was doing. The door was in front of him now… Deep breaths. Patience. Focus. Determination. And, with a hint of confidence, nothing could go wrong.

                He opened the door swiftly, and realized that he was so, so wrong.

                It was Ray, like usual; however, he quickly noticed that Ray _had no shirt on_. His lightly-tanned skin was bare to the world, soft muscles contracting beneath the contour of his shoulders, his chest and stomach flat with slight abs that were hardly noticeable beneath his normal uniform. He seemed to be sweating a little, a sheen of precipitation glazing his skin and making him appear all the more delectable.

                Joel had to stop himself from licking his lips.

                “Uh… Hi, sir…” Ray whispered, his words coming out in a choked mess. His eyes were wide behind his glasses, almost as though even _he_ was able to comprehend how he had showed up to Joel’s doorstep. His lips were moving, though no sound came through. Eventually, he just mumbled, “Pizza.”

                “Am I allowed to ask what happened to your uniform?” It was perfectly normal to ask, right? Even if all he wanted to do was thank the heavens above for whatever strange event had caused Ray to show up half-naked to his dorm and practically presenthimself on a silver platter…

                Ray gulped nervously, a spray of red embarrassment showing beneath the skin of his cheeks. “I just thought, y’know, it’s hot outside and I don’t want a sweaty shirt.” Ray quickly picked up pace of the conversation after his initial humiliation, although the blush across his cheeks was still _very_ noticeable.

                Okay, so he was going to play it casual. Joel could do this. “W-would you like me to get you a shirt?” He was trying not to blatantly stare at Ray’s chest, but he couldn’t help but sneak a few glances at the beautiful expanse of skin that had been revealed to him.

                Biting his lip, Ray stared at the ground. “If you don’t mind, that would be awesome…” The pizza box was still cradled in his hands, and he was shifting on the balls of his feet uneasily. He seemed worried, for some reason.

                “C’mon in and have a seat on the couch,” Joel suggested. First of all, Ray was fucking shirtless, and that wasn’t the ideal position to leave someone in out in the open (especially when that someone is a sexy pizza man). Second… He couldn’t waste this opportunity. Finally, he would be able to know who Ray was outside of his job.

                Without too much hesitation, Ray nodded and stepped in the doorway. Joel backed away so Ray could pass and, in the process, caught a whiff of his cologne above the scent of the pizza: light, and metallic. It was nice.

                Pointing to the counter, Joel directed, “You can set the pizza over there,” and lead Ray to his room as soon as he put the pizza down. There, he began digging through his drawers to find something for Ray to wear. The discomfort of being in someone else’s dorm while on the job was practically radiating from Ray, so Joel didn’t think about what shirt he was handing Ray, which turned out to be a tee shirt with Master Chief’s helmet on the front.

                He tossed it to Ray, whose immediate reaction was, “You play Halo?” He studied the shirt carefully before pulling it over his head. Joel had to turn away to avoid being caught watching Ray dress.

                “Yeah, I guess you could say that.” It wasn’t as much that he played it that it was his obsession; he had all but three achievements in the entire franchise, two of which that had been deemed impossible by the gaming community as a whole.

                The uncomfortable stance Ray had before faded away into curiosity. “What’s your Gamerscore?” he asked as he subconsciously sat at the foot of Joel’s bed.

                Joel’s automatic response was, “About 90,000.” Depending on the type of person Ray was, he would either ridicule Joel for the high score, or make fun of him for not reaching 100,000. As it turned out, Ray was neither.

                “Cool,” he responded nonchalantly.

                Eyebrows furrowing, Joel murmured, “What’s yours?”

                Immediately, Ray’s awkward nature manifested itself by forcing him to stare down at his shoes. He mumbled something, but Joel couldn’t catch what he was saying.

                “Hmm?”

                “Uh…” Ray met Joel’s eyes for a moment before looking back down. “…300,000.”

                Absorbing what he had just heard, Joel replied, “Damn. You must play well.”

                Ray’s head tipped back to reveal his eyes once more. “Yeah, I got that Nintendo trigger finger.”

                “Dude, don’t say that in public,” Joel snickered, causing Ray to snort. Finally, a reaction other than embarrassment from the Hispanic man.

                “You think that’s the worst thing I’ve ever said?” Ray asked, eyes full of sudden challenge. What had ignited this sudden flame within the shy guy? Whatever it was, Joel was just going to roll with it.

                He tossed his head back and laughed mockingly. Then, he gave a smirk and replied, “Well, what can I say? You’re the Class A description of an innocent virgin if I’ve ever seen one. I’m surprised you took up whatever bet you got at work to show up shirtless.”

                Ray’s cheeks flared up and he retorted, “Like _you’ve_ ever seen a virgin. And, for the record?” He stood from his place on Joel’s bed and stepped forward until he was mere inches away from Joel. Although he was a little shorter than Joel, he still seemed imposing. Ray whispered, breath fanning across Joel’s face, “I came this way on my own.”

                Joel had to fight down the urge to groan. “Is that right?” he asked, somehow managing to uphold his act. “You don’t seem the type, though it’s a pretty sexy thought that someone as hot as you showed up to my door half-naked.”

                “I’ll show you the type,” Ray growled. The image of him wearing Joel’s old Halo shirt, glaring up at him with a competitive nature that enhanced his barely-showing teeth, framed by lips; his eyes, sparked with desire for something to give; his skin, so delectable…

                It was too much.

                Joel’s hand met the collar of Ray’s newly-acquired shirt and pulled him forward to plant a kiss on his lips. God, he was so _spicy_ tasting… His lips were softened from Chapstick, his teeth retaining the hint of minty toothpaste from that morning… Joel didn’t even realize that Ray had pulled Joel’s tongue into his mouth until Ray threw his arms around his neck to keep them connected.

                This was when Joel realized that he, of all people, had fallen in love with someone he hardly knew. Not only that, but the person was _a fucking delivery boy._ Before he could mull over all the pornographic implications behind the image of Ray in his Pizza Palace uniform, Ray pulled away.

                “That was good,” Joel gasped breathlessly. He hadn’t realized that the human urge to breath had been suppressed by the wave of emotion Ray’s lips harbored.

                Nodding, Ray agreed, “Told you I’m the type.” Then, he seemed to realize what was happening outside of their little contest. “Uh, what do we do now?”

                “I don’t know about ‘we,’ but _I_ plan on doing _you_.” Joel saw the chance and took it.

                Ray only chuckled and replied, “Yeah, sure. Maybe after I call Geoff and tell him I’ll be a little late coming back to work.”

                It was the best idea Joel had heard all day.


End file.
